Moonlit Intervention
by Thrushsong k'Varis
Summary: Conan was sitting on the Agency roof, staring out across the empty street. The chaos in his mind was so distracting he almost didn't hear the quiet question spoken behind him. "Why are you up here, Tantei-kun?" He recognized Kid's voice, but wasn't sure he wanted to answer.
1. Chapter 1

WARNINGS: attempted suicide, depression, dissociation...this will not be a happy fic for a while

* * *

The Kaitou KID was flying home from a reconnaissance mission when he spotted his smallest critic sitting on a roof. A moment's consultation of his mental map confirmed that yes, that was the detective agency—and then he registered that the detective was sitting on top of the wall running around the edge of the roof, with his feet dangling over the edge and staring at the ground. Kaito was _not oaky_ with this. He thought he might beless okay than when Tantei-kun had been thrown out of a blimp, which had been _terrifying_, if manageable because there was time to catch him. This…Kaito wasn't sure he was the right person to be doing this, but he wasn't about to leave. He maneuvered himself to land across the rooftop from Conan, and mentally prayed to Lady Luck that he wasn't about to startle Tantei-kun off the roof.

"Why are you up here, Tantei-kun?" Kid asked quietly. He was starting to worry about the lack of answer when Tantei-kun responded.

"I could ask you the same thing, Kid-san."

_Good. Responding is good. Now if I can just get him to turn around._ "Me, Tantei-kun? Why, I was gliding over Beika when I spotted my favorite critic all alone at the edge of a rooftop, in the middle of the night." He hoped the imitation of the usual banter would bring Tantei-kun's attention toward Kid instead of whatever he was staring at. Unfortunately, Tantei-kun just hummed at him and then leaned over and propped his chin on his hand. Kaito cautiously moved closer, hoping he could get in range to grab the detective before he fell, and tried again.

"Won't Mouri-san be worried when she sees you aren't in bed?" _Tantei-kun should react to that, right? I've seen him making up excuses for her when he chases me at heists._

"Ran-neechan is staying with her Mom tonight, and Ot-chan is too busy watching TV to notice." Kaito winced at that. _Great move, remind him that no one will notice he's missing tonight._ He took another few steps forward, now in range for a lunge and grab if Tantei-kun started to fall.

"Did something happen, Tantei-kun?" _C'mon Conan, talk to me._ "I'll gladly listen if you need to vent." His mouth kept going when Conan tensed instead of responding verbally, but Kaito was more focused on closing the distance between him and his detective. Almost exactly when Kaito came to a stop directly behind him, Conan leaned forward.

His body reacted on instinct, grabbing the detective around the waist and _yanking_ him up and over the wall to safety. Kaito's legs refused to cooperate properly as he turned and tried to head off the roof, so he sat with his back to the wall instead. With Conan held securely in his lap, (and apparently still unresponsive) he allowed himself to curl around the detective and shake as his mind provided gruesome images of what might have happened.

A few minutes later, (was it longer? Kaito couldn't tell) he recovered enough to realize that his mouth had gone on talking to Conan while he wasn't paying attention, and apparently decided it would be a good idea to recite some of the stranger plans the Taskforce had come up with in the past to catch him. Mentally shrugging, he kept going, deciding to detail some of KID's heists that Conan had missed. It was probably as good a topic as any. Halfway through his retelling of the Green Dream heist, he was stopped abruptly as Conan finally spoke up.

"Kid?" He asked in confusion, "Is something wrong?"

It took much more control than it should have for Kaito to keep himself from laughing hysterically. "My favorite critic decided to try and throw himself off a rooftop in the middle of the night. I think I'm the one who should be asking that, Tantei-kun."

"WHAT?"

"Tantei-kun, if I hadn't caught you, you would have leaned off the edge. Don't try to deny it." _After what just happened, you better not try to lie to me._

Conan swallowed heavily, and responded quietly, "It wasn't intentional." Before Kid could interrupt, he added, "I haven't been able to focus properly all day, and came up here so I could be alone and think. When you asked what happened I got so lost in my thoughts I honestly didn't notice that I was leaning too far."

Kid's arms tightened in instinctive response to his worry even as he sighed with relief. "I'm glad I don't have to convince you to live, Tantei-kun, but losing that much awareness is dangerous. I want you to be honest with me; do you think it will happen again?"

Conan hesitated, "With what happened today, I'm not sure. Usually I'd say it wouldn't happen, but…" Kaito could feel Conan shifting uncertainly, and went with his instincts.

Kid pulled one of his arms away from Conan for a moment, before pressing a piece of paper into his small hands. "This is my number, Tantei-kun. I want you to contact me if you want to be alone. You can't be alone if this could happen again." When Conan hesitated to agree, Kid added, "I won't force you to talk about anything. Tantei-kun, please. I need to know you won't be walking in front of a car because you were alone and forgot you were outside."

"Alright, Kid."

* * *

Let me know what you think so far!


	2. Chapter 2

Conan fumbled clumsily in his pockets for his phone, some part of his frantic mind remembering he was supposed to call—he loses focus for a bit as his thoughts whirl more crazily, and realizes as the phone rings he doesn't know who he just called.

"Moshi-moshi?"

"KID," he pants the response, half the tension draining away from his body even as his brain seems determined to send his thoughts in cartwheels.

There's a short pause, and then KID speaks up, "Tantei-kun, are you okay?"

"Um…" He thinks he's probably hyperventilating, and some unknown part of his brain decided that the sixth-or-so landing on a fire escape who-knew-where was a great place to sit so… "Not really?"

KID responds almost instantly, "Are you hurt? Where are you?"

"I'm fine." The response is instinctive, and Conan abruptly realizes that his hands are stinging. "Actually, I think I scraped my hands and knees a bit when I tripped, but," he pauses to switch the phone to his other hand, "My hands aren't bleeding," he focuses briefly on his knees, "and my pants don't look ripped, so it's probably fine."

"Can you tell me where you are?"

"Don't know. Too busy running to keep track." Conan probably should be worried by that, but his brain is still determined to spin in mostly useless circles.

"Running?"

"Needed to get away from them." He hears KID inhale sharply and belatedly realizes how bad that sounded. "Not like that. From my friends."

"Just to be clear; you ran away from the Shounen Tantei?" KID sounds more confused than worried, now.

"Yeah."

After a moment, KID questions gently, "Why?"

_Because Haibara keeps watching me like she's waiting for me to fall apart, and the others are too chirpy and excited and happy_. He couldn't tell KID that, KID still had no idea what was going on in Conan's head. Well, maybe not about Haibara, but… "I just, I couldn't—"

He takes a moment to try and force his thoughts into order. It doesn't work. "It sounds stupid."

"Tantei-kun, even you can't be logical all the time." Coming from KID, it sounded strangely reassuring.

"They're all so…happy and bright, all the time, and that's fine, but I couldn't…" he trails off, and then braces himself to admit it, "I ran away because I couldn't fake it, not today."

"It's okay to be stressed or sad or angry, Tantei-kun. You don't have to pretend to be happy."

He knew that, but…they were just kids (they were _six_)…he didn't want his issues to drag them down too; they didn't need to know how much of a mess he was right now. "I don't want them unhappy because of me."

"You could let them help—"

"No."

"Tantei-kun—"

"No way," they did not need to know how many problems he was having. "I'm not telling them any of this."

"Easy, Tantei-kun. I'm not making you talk to anyone. Just breathe for a minute, okay?" Conan hadn't even realized his breathing had sped up again.

He closed his eyes and let his head rest on his knees. "I hate feeling like this."

"Tantei-kun?"

He let some of the frustration out, "I can't think properly. Especially about—" Conan cut himself off. He was not about to tell KID he was a shrunken teenager who got poisoned and-no. Nope, not thinking about it. "Every time I try, it all just gets thrown around in tangles, and I end up thinking in circles because it stresses me out that I can't think straight and I know I can't just ignore it until it goes away, because it won't."

"I don't know what's bothering you, but you could try not to think about all of it at once, just start with one piece. Or you might try waiting to do your detective-y analysis until you're less stressed."

"I doubt that will be any time soon." _Especially if Haibara keeps acting like I'm a bomb about to go off._

"If you keep thinking about things that stress you out, you'll be right."

"Not that simple, KID"

He heard the thief sigh, "Well, it's worth a try."

"Hmm." His limbs seem to be recovered from the run earlier, so he gets up and stretches before heading back towards street-level.

"So, you think you can get back to the agency from—where are you again?"

_KID must have pretty good hearing if he can hear my footsteps through the phone._

"Climbing down a fire escape."

"…A fire escape, Tantei-kun?"

Conan makes sure to use the extra-chirpy voice as he responds, "Yep!"

"Please don't do that."

"…do what?" He's reached the ground and briefly wonders which way out of the alley he should take, before shrugging and walking to the left.

"Let's go with, don't climb tall buildings when you're stressed and not paying attention to where you are." Conan finds it oddly amusing that the thief who regularly jumps off buildings (with a hang-glider, but still) is telling him to stay away from heights.

"How is that supposed to work? If I'm not paying attention I can't really stop myself."

"Tantei-kun…" KID is groaning, and Conan wonders if he managed to accidentally transfer his stress to the thief. He does feel better, though he has no idea why. They didn't even talk about his major problem.

"Oh, I can see where I am now."

"Yeah?"

"It turns out the fire escape was on the side of the Haido City Hotel." Conan absently wonders if KID considered using the fire escape at all, or if the helicopters would have spotted him if he had.

"The Haido City Hotel," If he had to guess, KID sounds torn between laughter and another groan.

"Yep. Thanks for the talk, KID."

"Any time, Tantei-kun. I mean it."

"I know. Called you, didn't I?" Conan hangs up and heads back for the agency, hoping Ran won't scold him too much for staying out late after school without telling her about it.

* * *

Let me know what you thought!

Next chapter is planned to be the big confession about what drove Conan up to the roof.


	3. Chapter 3

So I was planning to have Conan reveal what triggered the rooftop incident in this chapter, but Conan said he wasn't ready yet...he demanded humor and bonding instead.

Also, the format of the texting part is probably atrocious, any suggestions on how to make it more readable are welcome.

* * *

Conan stared at the homework laid out on the table in 'his' room and sighed. (It wasn't that much, he'd be done in minutes if he wanted, but it was so _boring_.) He quickly filled out the math he hadn't managed to finish before the Shounen Tantei distracted him, and stared reluctantly at the handwriting worksheet. He was not going to be able to focus on it; he was already dreading the tediousness. And he really didn't want to end up zoning out from boredom and ending up stuck in his thoughts again.

Maybe he should contact Kid? He didn't exactly need to leave the agency, but he really wanted a distraction, and he was technically alone…But Ran and Sonoko were in the living room chatting, so he probably shouldn't call; they'd be suspicious if he was talking while he was supposed to be doing his work. _I'll just text him then._

Pulling out his Conan phone (kami forbid he accidentally reveal his secret to Kid through a _phone number_ of all things), he scrolled to the contact he'd labelled 'Kaitou' (he'd been tempted to put 'stupid thief', but decided this way would be slightly less suspicious) and opened a new message.

Are you busy?

Nothing urgent. Need me to come get you?

Not this time.

Wasn't sure if I should contact you, but I am technically alone right now.

Only technically?

Ran-neechan sent me to my room to do homework.

She and Sonoko are in the next room chatting.

Aw. You're just using me to procrastinate! (╯︵╰,)

Not really? I only need one hand to write.

And honestly,

I thought I'd rather have a distraction from my thoughts before I end up _needing_ one.

So you thought of me?

I'm so happy Conan-kun! （ ＾ω＾）

Idiot.

How rude!

(ᗒᗣᗕ)՞ Why are you so mean to me Conan-kun?

You're ridiculous.

Also, I was being serious.

So was I.

I'm happy you're trying to be careful.

Do you want to talk about it?

Not today.

That's fine.

What were you doing when I texted?

Homework, of course!

Ah

Ah? What Ah?

Nothing.

No! Don't lie Conan-kun, you sent it, so tell me what you're thinking!

I thought 'So that's why you wanted to come over.'

Eeeeehh? Say it's not true! ｡･ﾟﾟ･(д)･ﾟﾟ･｡

You can't believe I'd use you to get away from homework!

…You just told me I would do that to you, like 10 minutes ago.

Touché.

I have to go; Ran-neechan wants me to help her.

Have fun! Good luck with your homework!

Finished already.

Wait, really?

Yep. Thanks for this by the way.

Conan-kun! I'm touched! (=^▽^=)

I'm going now.

Don't you have stuff to do?

(∩︵∩) But this was so fun.

I'll text you tomorrow, Kaitou.

Conan waited a minute before deciding the thief wouldn't respond and slipping the phone into his pocket. (He had no way of knowing that said thief was dancing around cheering because his detective wanted to talk to him again.)


	4. Chapter 4

Texting again- Conan's texts are left-aligned, Kaito's are...well, center-ish.

* * *

Kaito blinked down at his phone in surprise. He hadn't expected Conan to be texting him in the middle of school. After a quick look around to ensure his classmates (read: Hakuba and Aoko) weren't paying attention to him, Kaito slid the phone onto his desk, making sure his textbook would block the teacher's view (at this point in the year, they were likely to ignore something like texting from him, but he'd rather not be interrupted) and opened the detective's message.

I did some research.

Oh?

I think I've been getting anxiety/panic attacks.

Being involved in all those cases can't be good for your stress levels.

You have no idea.

Maybe you should take a break from the cases Tantei-kun.

The cases themselves don't really bother me.

…Running into murders weekly doesn't bother you?

I'm used to it. Murder is part of my life.

໒( ᓀ ‸ ᓂ )७ Murder is bad Tantei-kun.

Yes? That is why I want to be a detective.

( •᷄⌓•᷅ ) You're no fun.

Yet I'm still your favorite.

Really, it's not that the cases bother me.

Then what?

Trying to keep the others from investigating dangerous cases.

They're way too reckless.

Says the one who threw himself off a building to try to catch me.

What, are you mad? I knew you wouldn't let me fall.

Kaito stares at the screen for a minute in surprise. Was this Tantei-kun's way of saying he trusted KID? Kaito had known the detective trusted his alter ego somewhat after the all the times Conan had 'let' the thief escape, but that Conan admitted it, even indirectly was new. It felt…nice actually. His thoughts were interrupted by another text from Conan.

But really, they're worse than me.

How?

It's like they have no concept of danger.

And they can't defend themselves at all.

Maybe I should get Ran-neechan to give them lessons.

Maybe you should consider keeping them away from cases, Chibi-tantei.

Oi! I'm not _that_ small!

But you're so short and cute! o(^▽^)o

No.

You are! Your friends are all taller than you, you know.

Actually, Ayumi is shorter.

Whatever you say, Chibi.

…You're not going to let it go, are you?

⌒°(ᴖ◡ᴖ)°⌒ Nope~

Instead of lessons, you could give your friends some defense gadgets.

Then you wouldn't have to worry so much about them getting hurt.

(∩︵∩) Oi, don't ignore me, Chibi-kun.

Chiiiiiiibiiiiiii~~~

.·´¯`(▂)´¯`·. Don't abandon me!

I need your cuteness!

Just for that, I'll teach them to kick soccer balls at you.

(๏д๏) You wouldn't!

Try me.

…

｜−・;）

I take it back! Don't send them after me with soccer balls of doom!

Why not?

I think it'd be fun.

八(＾□＾*) Tantei-kun! Aren't detectives supposed to be good and forgiving?!

…We arrest criminals, so not so forgiving.

How horrible.

Do you admit I'm not cute?

You're too evil to be cute. （￣ー￣；）

Hmm. They would probably misuse it if I gave them strength shoes.

…So…no soccer balls of doom?

Not from the Shounen Tantei, no.

…Brat.

Stupid thief.

Gotta go, I've disturbed my class by not pranking them.

Wait, really?

Yep. (￣︶￣) They get twitchy if I don't pull anything by lunch.

You just have no self-control.

Why bother? This's much more fun~（＾ｖ＾）

I'll leave you to it then.

Bye, chibi.

Shut up, idiot.

Kaito grinned at the text for a moment before subtly eyeing his classmates. Yep, they were definitely waiting for the chaos. He'd been working on a big one for an occasion just like this…

* * *

A/N: Hope y'all enjoyed this one!

I'm thinking next chapter will have them meeting up in person again.


	5. Chapter 5

A/N: Uh, so in case it's not clear, 1st line of this chapter is a text from Conan. Conan's texts are on the left, Kaito's are...center-ish.

* * *

I hate you.

Kaito frowned at the message from Conan-kun. He…didn't think he'd done anything to make the kid _that_ upset… hadn't he overheard Tantei-kun say something similar to his mature friend once? If he remembered correctly she had…laughed at him? So Tantei-kun was joking. Kaito firmly ignored the alternative as he typed his response.

Eeeeh? And here I'd thought we were friends! (∩︵∩)

When I slipped into the pond all you did was laugh.

Therefore, it's your fault I got sick.

Kaito winced. It had been pretty cold out during the heist last night, he probably should have known the kid would get sick if he didn't dry off quickly enough. Though, he had been pretty distracted…

There was a duckling on your head! (•ө•)

And you were glaring at me with it on your head! ヽ(^◇^*)/

It was hilarious and cute I had to laugh! (ᗒᗨᗕ)

You're not helping your case. At all.

Ooops…

I meant, I was frantically running for my life,

So I really didn't have time to pull you out?

But you had time to stop and laugh? Try again.

I…didn't realize how little time I had before needing to flee?

(￢＿￢)

I'm sorry

…and?

(ᗒᗣᗕ)՞ Please forgive me!

No. It's still your fault.

.·´¯`(;▂;)´¯`·. Conan-kun! I cannot bear to live without your friendship!

What.

If only you would tell this poor magician how to gain your forgiveness!

Unless you can 'magically' cure a cold…

I will bring tribute to your abode in hopes of gaining your forgiveness!

Merely ask and you shall receive!

I demand coffee as tribute.

…Conan-kun, that wasn't asking.

People don't ask for tributes

Really though coffee? (ﾟヘﾟ)？shouldn't I bring medicine or something?

No. Coffee or no forgiveness.

…you really should take medicine

…despite how much you seem to like it coffee won't help you get better.

Ran-neechan gave me medicine earlier.

But I still want coffee.

I see, you're using my guilt to get me to sneak in contraband.

Is it working?

（・＿・；) You were supposed to deny it, chibi.

Oh, sorry.

I'm not trying to use guilt against you.

Thank you.

If you bring coffee I'll restore your friendship status.

Bribery now?

…no.

（−＿−；）That was so unconvincing.

Hmmm…

Pleeeease? (๑◕︵◕๑)

gah! Don't make that face!

(๑◕︵◕๑) (๑◕︵◕๑)

ok, ok, I give! I'll bring coffee for you.

Yes!

~K~

Later, after reaching Beika and checking to make sure Conan-kun's guardians were otherwise occupied, Kaito slipped in the detective's window and had to fight to keep from laughing at how ridiculous the detective sounded as he demanded Kaito to give him coffee, sniffling every other word. He settled for a dramatic flourish as he presented the coffee to Conan, grinning when the detective rolled his eyes.

"Am I forgiven, o great and powerful detective?"

Conan sipped the coffee, gave Kaito a considering look, and paused, "…You're forgiven," he conceded. Looking amused, he added, "This powerful detective requires his magician friend to entertain him."

Kaito grinned and sat across from Conan on the bed, "I have just the trick…"

* * *

It's an update! Um, sorry for leaving y'all hanging so long on this fic.

This was not what I had planned to be next, but that version basically refused to be written...so y'all have these two being dramatic instead. Hopefully you found it amusing :)


	6. Chapter 6

WARNING: this chapter contains mentions of murder; the victim was a young child. There's no explicit description of the body but there are references to the death being bloody and violent. If you don't want to read that, skip the paragraph in which Conan starts /

Format stuff: For added clarity, stuff in single quotes 'like this' is texted; there weren't enough texts to really separate them from the narrative paragraphs this /

Also, Kid disguises himself as female, so I've intermittently used she/her as the thief's pronouns in this chapter, hopefully it's not too confusing.

* * *

"Yo, Chibi-kun!" Kaito greeted cheerily as he answered his phone.

"Are you busy?"

"Oi, oi," Kaito scolded lightly, "Didn't we talk about this, already? No one's forcing me to talk to you."

"Eh? No, I meant do you have time to come to meet me? In person?"

"Sure," Kaito glanced at the time: late enough Mouri-tantei would be convinced Conan was asleep but not late enough for the man himself to be in bed, "Sneaking in again shouldn't be too difficult."

"Um…I'm not actually at the agency right now."

"Tantei-kun?" Kaito thought the detective sounded slightly guilty; had he snuck out? He hoped Conan was somewhere safe and not on another moonlit rooftop.

"I'm at the Rikugien Gardens," there was a pause and Conan's next words sounded strained; "We got kicked out of a case."

Kaito nearly tripped in surprise. He'd thought the police were used to the tiny tantei's help by now; what could they have sent him away for? Wait— "We? Were the Shounen Tantei with you?"

"Yeah, they all got sent home, I don't think they saw much of it."

A chill ran down his spine as he realized the detective sounded _relieved_. "I can be there in twenty minutes, which part of the park are you in?" He was already moving before he finished asking the question; he wasn't sure he wanted to know what kind of case could make Tantei-kun so upset, but he wasn't about to leave him to deal with it on his own.

"There's a looped path, if you go left from the main entrance there are some pagoda trees."

"Please tell me you didn't climb one of them." The silence was telling, and Kaito half-asked, "There has to be a reason your response to stress is climbing something."

"You already know, ridiculous thief. No one looks up."

"Stealing my tricks, Tantei-kun?" He sniffed dramatically into the phone, "I'm so proud, you'll be a real magician soon!"

Conan dryly responded, "I'll pass, thanks. One of you is more than enough."

Kaito smiled slightly as he did a final check of the disguise he'd thrown together, "Right, I'll be there soon." He grinned as he got an idea to keep the detective distracted, "I wonder if you'll be able to spot me before I find you?"

"Challenge accepted, Kid. When I win, you'll owe me coffee."

Reassured that the detective would be fine until he arrived, Kaito taunted, "I'll be careful not to startle you out of your tree when I get there."

Conan replied, "I'll text when I see you," before the call ended.

~C~

Conan was scanning the flow of people on the brightly lit path below, distantly grateful to Kid for the distraction as he catalogued each person as they walked into his area of vision. Noting and quickly dismissing each couple (Kid might try to throw him off by chatting with a complete stranger, but all the couples he could see were being actively sappy), he focused instead on individuals. Kid hadn't given any hints to his disguise, but Conan knew the thief would be looking for him; he just had to find the one who was looking a bit too closely at the trees. An elderly man made his way slowly through, but he was only looking at the artistically lighted miniature garden, not the darkened trees framing it. A woman coming in from the opposite direction he'd mentioned to the thief was walking too briskly to be able to look for him, a teenage girl posing for selfies, a middle-aged businessman—wait. The teenager pulled her phone closer to check the pictures just as Conan looked back, making a face at her phone before taking a few steps to the right and posing again. Yes, that was it: with the phone angled that way her face wouldn't be in the picture at all; she could be photographing her outfit, but then why pose with her arm near her face? A swift mental calculation and Conan smirked: the camera on the back of her phone would photograph the top half of the pagoda tree next to him.

Pulling out his phone, he sent a simple 'found you' to the thief's number, slightly impressed when it buzzed with a reply without the girl visibly breaking her pattern. 'So sure, Tantei-kun?'

He sent a brief deduction as his reply: 'Not selfies, wrong camera angle.' Conan grinned as a few seconds later the girl pouted dramatically down at her phone as she started typing her reply.

'Are you joining me for your victory coffee or should I keep looking?' He considered for a minute; coffee would be good, but realistically he didn't think he could deal with people at the moment. Getting scandalized looks for drinking coffee would be a worse reminder than usual right now. Since he'd already won, there was no point to keep hiding from the thief.

'Watch the trees.'

Pulling up his phone's camera, he turned the flash on and waited until the thief was looking in his direction to take a picture. The flash of light would show through the foliage much better than any movement Conan could make to signal his location. (True, he could have just texted which tree he was in, but you couldn't live with his mother without picking up some of her love of theatrics.) He watched as the girl casually walked over to his tree and waved when she craned her neck up to look at him. She shook her head at him and jumped up to catch the lowest branch, easily pulling herself onto it before nimbly climbing to perch on the branch in front of Conan.

"How did you even get up here?" the thief questioned (while using a female voice), "Even your crazy shoes wouldn't let you jump _that_ high."

Conan thought of the Agasa-enhanced suspenders he'd taken to rolling up and shoving in a pocket and deadpanned, "I climbed the other side."

"Those branches aren't any lower!" Kid huffed when Conan smirked silently in reply. "Well, reality-bending aside—"

"Look who's talking."

Pointedly ignoring the interruption, the thief continued, "Are you all right, Tantei-kun?"

Startled by the abrupt return to Kid's usual voice, Conan blinked at the thief for a few moments, before closing his eyes and leaning back against the tree trunk. "I'm really not," he managed to answer.

The silence stretched a little, and Kid questioned delicately, "You mentioned you got kicked out?"

"Yeah," Conan winced as the image of the scene flashed behind his closed eyelids, hurriedly focusing back on the thief. Seeing the open concern in her expression, he managed to continue, "If it had been any other case I would be more upset about that."

He didn't react as she shifted closer to put a comforting hand on his knee, glad Kid wasn't pushing him to talk about the case. The silent support as he took the time to just breathe helped him stay anchored in the moment, instead of drowning in his emotions.

When he tried to speak, the words caught and he had to force them past his suddenly clogged throat, "She—she looked like Ayumi." Conan's eyes blurred with tears and he heard Kid gasp softly. He flailed a bit as he felt himself move before the thief spoke up.

"You're safe, Tantei-kun, I've got you," the thief murmured, and Conan relaxed slightly as he realized Kid was hugging him. "No one can see you," Kid added soothingly, "you can let it out."

The next thing Conan knew he was bawling into the thief's shoulder, hiding his face as he finally released his hold on the last shreds of his calm façade. He was good enough at compartmentalizing that usually the state of a body didn't distress him (he had to be—any sign he was affected by it and Megure-keibu would ban him from investigating without a second thought), but this—Conan was intensely relieved the kids hadn't seen it. He had never really understood why people would choose to kill, but attacking and killing a _child_ was truly sickening. It happened; he knew that—every kidnapping ransom case was a race against time for that very reason—but he'd never _seen_ it. That child—she had been so small, and the violence had made it hard to distinguish features—but her clothes (what wasn't covered in blood) had looked like something Ayumi would wear (he was going to have nightmares for _months_, he knew it)—and all he could think was _how could anyone possibly want to kill someone so innocent? What kind of sick person could be so violent, so hatefully angry that they would—would kill—_Conan's thoughts fragmented as the raw grief mixed with incomprehension and horror until his entire body was shaking with the force of his sobs.

By the time the storm of emotions had passed, Conan was exhausted. His eyes and throat felt sore, and his face (and Kid's shirt) was a mess, covered in tears and snot. If he'd cried all over anyone else he might have been embarrassed, but Conan was too tired to care, and he trusted that Kid wouldn't think of him differently (as 'just a child') after seeing him break down. At some point Kid had started humming and rubbing gentle circles on his back; Conan didn't recognize the tune, but it sounded peaceful and he was content to stay where he was for a while and let his friend comfort him.

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A/N: *dramatic gasp* Two chapter posts in a month? It's a miracle! Apparently writing Kid cuddling with Shinichi in 'Entrusted to Your Hands' spurred my inspiration for this one...hopefully y'all enjoyed reading :)

Rikugien Gardens is an actual park in Tokyo with a looped walking path, and the site I found it on specifically mentioned it was seasonally open at night. I've never been there so I have no idea if it has pagoda trees, but when I looked up tree pictures I thought pagoda trees would be good to hide in.


	7. Chapter 7

A/N: In the aftermath of last chapter, Ran is overprotective and Conan is feeling smothered. (Format reminder: Conan's texts are on the left, Kid's are center-ish)

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Conan was starting to give serious consideration to _literally_ climbing the walls. Since the case at Rikugien a week ago, Ran had refused to let him go absolutely anywhere unsupervised. She walked with him the entire way to and from school, and had gone with them any time the kids had dragged him to the park to play. He hadn't been alone out of her sight at any time except his room at the agency, and even then she checked on him every ten minutes or so. Admittedly, it had been stupid of him to just walk away without telling anyone, but her reaction was making him feel trapped, like he was being suffocated by her worry.

He'd tried escaping to Agasa's house, but that had failed miserably—he hadn't been able to get away from the kids. What he really needed was somewhere to be alone for a while so he didn't have to worry about acting like 'Conan', but there was no way Ran would leave him alone for the foreseeable future. Really, given how stressed he was, it probably wasn't a good idea for him to be alone—oh. Conan blinked as a plan abruptly slotted into place. That might work.

As soon as the bell rang for lunch, Conan told the Shounen Tantei that he had a headache (true) and was going to find a shady spot (also true) to take a nap (to plan his escape, but they didn't need to know that). Once outside, after making sure they were actually going to leave him alone, he made his way to a shady corner of the schoolyard and forced his way under a clump of bushes into the clear spot around the base of a particularly leafy tree.

Satisfied no one would interrupt him, Conan pulled out his phone and sent a short text.

Help.

Where are you? Are you hurt?

I'm fine, I just need a favor.

(╯•﹏•╰) Tantei-kun, you nearly gave me a heart attack

Sorry.

I just need to get away from Ran-neechan for a while.

You need my help for that?

She's pretty much refused to let me go anywhere without an adult for the last week.

Brat, you went off alone without telling her anything

And were gone for so long that when I brought you back

I got mobbed by police officers! (ᗒᗣᗕ)՞

Yeah, sorry about that.

That short-haired woman was terrifying.

You mean Sato-keiji?

She's nice.

Sure, AFTER you told her I was helping you.

Before that I seriously thought she would attack me.

Ah…yeah Takagi-keiji told me afterwards that they'd thought you were kidnapping me.

Eeeehhh?

They'd never seen me let anyone carry me around like that, so…

They thought I was unconscious.

Wait…seriously?

Yeah.

(ーー;) You…

I don't know why I'm surprised

Your life is ridiculous, chibi.

Believe me, I know.

So…you said you needed something?

Right.

I was hoping you could use the disguise from that time

since Ran-neechan would probably trust you

at least to go to the park without her following me

Hmm…maybe.

It would probably work better if I told her I wanted to make sure you're ok,

have you ask her to go to the park while she's busy with something

and then you could suggest me 'watching' you.

I can do that.

I'll drop by about an hour after your school gets out?

Thanks.

No worries, tantei-kun.

Bye, Kid-san.

Oi, oi, what's with the rush?

I need to get back to class

Before the Shounen Tantei decide to form a search party.

Tantei-kun, you ditched class to text me?

Lunch, actually.

I can't exactly let them know their 'leader' is in contact with a criminal.

Oh, good, that means I still have more time to corrupt you. (＾ω＾)

If you want Ran-neechan to ever let me go to another heist,

_don't_ say anything like that again.

But you'd make such a good minion!

No.

(T⌓T)

Don't you have an assistant already?

You'd be a much cuter assistant, chibi-kun!

I'm not cute.

⌒°(ᴖ◡ᴖ)°⌒

Being short does not make me cute, stupid thief.

Admit it, you'd be an awesome assistant.

I'd rather assist a soccer ball on its way to your stupid monocle.

(;*△*;) Tantei-kun! You wound me!

Good

Really, Tantei-kun, I thought we were friends.

Yes, and?

*gasp* You admitted it! Ｏ(≧▽≦)Ｏ

…you're ridiculous.

Not waiting for the thief's response, Conan switched off his phone and hurried back to the school building. If he was late for class the Shounen Tantei would definitely pester him to find out why, and 'he was tired' would not be a good enough answer. He wasn't about to let this plan go to waste because they refused to leave him alone.

* * *

A/N: The muses have apparently decided to compete for attention...by giving me ten ideas at once. Enjoy the flood of updates while it lasts, y'all.

It's Kid's turn to vent a bit next chapter…any guesses what about?


End file.
